Wes Davis

Former Weekend Editor

Wes DavisNov 11, 2023

Google’s Jigsaw team created a free tool for small platforms to deal with terrorist content.

Wired reported yesterday that the “Altitude” tool gives small user-created content platforms access to a central database of content deemed to be created by terrorist organizations. Altitude joins similar past Jigsaw tools for toxic speech moderation and CSAM identification.

The database, maintained by the UN-backed online counter-terrorism group Tech Against Terrorism, is already used by major tech companies.

This New Tool Aims to Keep Terrorism Content Off the Internet

[WIRED]

Wes DavisNov 11, 2023

Humane is hiring if you’re an Android developer looking for a job.

Humane didn’t explicitly say what underpins the Ai Pin’s “Cosmos” operating system when it announced it this week. A Threads user spotted this nugget in a job posting on the company’s website, which has a pretty strong hint:

Work alongside our System Software team to tightly integrate and customize our usage of Android OS (AOSP)

Wes DavisNov 11, 2023

I can’t emphasize this enough, but nothing was greater than McDonald’s in the ‘80s.

There’s plenty to criticize about the company, but tell that to 7-year-old me, climbing up into that hamburger cop’s head.

Anyway, here are some behind-the-scenes pictures from the Loki McDonald’s episode. While we’re at it, here’s the McDonald’s scene from Mac and Me. And an AI-upscaled Mac Tonight commercial.

Wes DavisNov 11, 2023

Superman Legacy is still on time.

Not every comic book movie is getting a studio delay following the end of the actors strike. James Gunn posted on Threads today that Superman Legacy will still reboot the DC extended universe on its original planned date of July 11th, 2025.

If you need your Zac Snyder-era DCEU fix, much of it will shamble on next month on Netflix.

The Screen Actors Guild’s strike-ending deal has entered its final step

Wes DavisNov 11, 2023

Blue Beetle will start streaming on Max next week.

I missed this in theaters, but I’m excited to catch up on it when it debuts on November 17th, as Warner Bros. Discovery announced yesterday.

Maybe the movie is a decade late, as Charles said in his review. But as a person who’s always fallen more on the DC side of the fence, this bit from his review’s opening paragraph has me looking forward to finally seeing it, anyway:

Blue Beetle feels like the end result of a creative team thoughtfully executing a plan to replicate certain elements of what’s made rival studio Marvel’s films so successful — and not just Warner Bros. clumsily trying to play catch-up.

Blue Beetle is the kitschy sort of superhero throwback DC should have been making years ago

Charles Pulliam-Moore

Aug 16

Wes DavisNov 11, 2023

Yep, that sounds about right.

Business Insider assigned two journalists the task of scrolling 500 TikTok videos each to tally up the number of ads they saw.

Both reported that around 30 percent of the content was sponsored. Insider notes that’s similar to broadcast TV’s roughly 28 percent.

TikTok’s been testing an ad-free tier for five bucks a month, so at least there’s that.

We watched 1,000 TikToks in one sitting. The algorithm served up a shocking number of ads, rivaling network TV.

[Insider]

Wes DavisNov 11, 2023

Free pizza coupons are a risky business when the internet is involved.

Domino’s apparently flew too close to the sun this week when the internet figured out, via the always-reliable Wario64 and others, that its free pizza codes were infinitely reusable.

Read all about the chaos in Kotaku’s story.

Chaos At Domino’s After Free Pizza Glitch Goes Viral

[Kotaku]